LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Furniture maven Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale bet roughly $2.4 million to win on Essential Quality in the Kentucky Derby last year to help make sure the colt would be the post-time favorite. With the 148th Derby set for Saturday at Churchill Downs, McIngvale once again is offering a full refund to any customer spending at least $3,000 on merchandise from his Houston-based Gallery Furniture stores if the Derby favorite wins. It’s the type of promotional gimmick and calculated gamble made famous by multi-million-dollar wagers McIngvale has placed on the World Series and Super Bowl in recent years. In regard to the Derby, if the favorite wins, he’ll basically recoup what he loses in giving away the furniture. If the favorite loses, look at all the money he made in furniture sales. Last year, Essential Quality was the program favorite. McIngvale placed incremental bets on him throughout Derby Day, and at post time, Essential Quality was the $2.90-1 favorite by a comfortable margin over the second choice, Rock Your World ($4.70-1). Essential Quality ran fourth and Rock Your World was 17th, but that’s largely irrelevant, other than customers had to pay full retail when McIngvale lost his bet. Whatever the race result, it was going to be close to a break-even proposition for McIngvale – with all the free publicity Gallery received an immeasurable side benefit in his favor. This year, with many onlookers predicting that favoritism could be close between Epicenter and Zandon, McIngvale is still trying to decide which horse to back. His bets represented a sizable percentage of the approximately $9 million bet on Essential Quality, an amount that lowered the colt’s price from what would have been 4-1 without McIngvale (although that does not account for a “counterbalance” that comes into play). In any case, it was always highly likely that Essential Quality would be favored. This year, it might not be so simple. Epicenter will be the program favorite when entries are drawn Monday, but Zandon is drawing strong support off his Blue Grass Stakes win. McIngvale is contemplating his next move. The one unlikely scenario he does not want to occur: the post-time favorite being different than the horse he bets – and he intends to reach deep into his pockets to try to prevent that from happening. :: Get Kentucky Derby Betting Strategies for exclusive wager recommendations, contender profiles, pedigree analysis, and more Matching projected sales against a projected profit/loss on his Derby bet, McIngvale “needs at least 3-1 or so on the favorite for everything to balance out the way he wants,” said Gary Palmisano, a Churchill executive who is working closely with McIngvale on his strategy. “We’ve been talking it over for weeks now. We’ll know what he’s doing only when he decides.”